1. Field of Invention
This invention pertains to a centralized transaction system. More particularly, this invention pertains to a system in which customer information is acquired and stored before a transaction is initiated and that information is used to complete the transaction. Before the transaction is completed, the customer is authenticated by the system. The customer information includes customer identification information, customer payment information, and customer selected deals, including coupons, discounts, and rebates.
2. Description of the Related Art
From time immemorial, individuals have completed transactions with others. In days gone by, such transactions consisted of trading one item for another. Today, transactions are much more complex. Many people have a multitude of credit and debit cards, in addition to cash and checks, that are used to pay for goods and/or services obtained through face-to-face transactions, as well as transactions conducted over the telephone, the mail, and the Internet.
The multitude of credit and debit cards creates problems for many people. One such problem is that there are often too many cards to carry around and keep track. Not to mention the effort required to maintain each account and to reconcile each account. Each additional card adds to the security efforts necessary to ensure that the card is not stolen or the account is not being used improperly or without authorization. Some credit card vendors even issue temporary card numbers for security purposes to make it more difficult for others to use the credit card without authorization.
On-line transactions also create problems for many people. Secure web sites require a user identification name and a password. For good security, it is recommended that users have a different password for each site and that the password be strong, that is, the password contains numbers and letters, both upper and lower case. To further complicate matters, it is recommended that passwords never be written down, making it difficult for people to remember their many passwords.
In today's competitive market, vendors often offer deals, such as discounts, coupons, and rebates, to entice customers to shop with the vendor. These deals are often available for both traditional brick-and-mortar stores and on-line stores. Value conscious consumers spend time searching, acquiring, and storing coupons and then remembering to use those coupons when shopping.
It is not only customers that experience problems with the current variety of transactions, but vendors experience problems. One such problem is the mining, collection, and analysis of customer and transaction data acquired from the various types of transactions. Vendors use such data to better market their products and services to those that are most likely to purchase them.
Because vendors accept a multitude of credit/debit cards, there is a large administrative burden of tracking, maintaining, and reconciling the transaction information from a multitude of financial institutions. Additionally, in order to obtain a financial overview, information from the multitude of financial institutions must be combined, which is often difficult because of the different reporting methods used by the institutions.
Additionally, security of confidential and personal information obtained by vendors is a concern, both for the vendor and the customer. There is a need to maintain confidentiality of customer's personal financial information. Credit and debit card data must be protected against unauthorized access to prevent others from making unauthorized purchases. At brick-and-mortar stores, the physical credit/debit card is handled and paper records are often kept with credit/debit card information. For on-line vendors, there is no established standard for processing financial information obtained from customers.
Credit card companies and other financial institutions experience problems with unauthorized transactions. Oftentimes the vendor who supplies goods or services in an unauthorized transaction does not receive payment from the credit card company or financial institution. In other cases, the credit card company or financial institution absorbs the cost of unauthorized transactions, such as when a credit card is stolen.